But the documents on the Save Southern Heritage Florida website seem to achieve another end: they’re instruments of harassment — a practice known as “doxxing.”
It’s not only a list of names of people who spoke in favor of the monument’s removal (who heavily outnumbered their anti-removal counterparts that day) — the “report” also includes images of the individuals listed, names, addresses, phone numbers, screen grabs of social media posts and descriptors. Those not from Hillsborough County were labeled “imported.” Accompanying one man’s information: “wasn’t bothered by the statue on his wedding day” (included was a social media image of the activist after he and his wife apparently got married at the courthouse annex property on which the controversial monument sits). Another activist is described as a “Southern apologist.”
“We really were not surprised by what we found,” said David McCallister, spokesman for Save Southern Heritage Florida, in an August 10 media release. “Its [sic] a really hard core group of social justice warriors and left-wing democratic party activists, mixed in with Socialist-Marxists and Anti-Fa… certainly not mainstream America.”
In the wake of the doxxing, activists have been the subject of menacing emails and even phone calls. Kate Connolly, a progressive activist who sits on the Hillsborough County Diversity Advisory Council (along, bizarrely enough, with McCallister, who was recently appointed to the board — see below), said while she is not sure if she was targeted, many activists have been.
“I have received a huge amount of blocked calls and unverifiable calls from Jacksonville lately but not sure if I am being targeted,” she said via Facebook Messenger. “Those that I know were targeted seem to be receiving intense abuse and stalking through social media channels.”
To the astonishment of many activists, the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners voted Wednesday to allow McCallister to also serve on the county’s Diversity Advisory Council. That was before the Miami New Times obtained the documents revealing personal information about activists to the world. It was also right after a majority of county commissioners approved another roadblock for the monument’s removal; in this case the stipulation that the private sector pay half the costs for its relocation and that said money be raised in 30 days (the sum was raised in just over 24 hours).
Connolly and others are calling for McCallister’s removal from the committee, which is supposed to “facilitate communication between County government and its diverse populations, addressing matters related to diversity that are important to everyone,” according to the county’s website.
With McCallister around, Connolly said, that doesn’t happen.
“I certainly call for his removal based on my brief time on the DAC, during which he as obstructed every meeting,” she said. “He consistently bullied members as well as the BOCC for years and is now being rewarded after criminally releasing private information to hate groups. He ought to receive [a] greater reprimand than simple removal. Regardless, his eligibility should be immediately revoked as a representative of the BOCC. I am working with leadership and fellow activists to call for such, including a review of the need for the DAC position to which he was appointed.”
Also not too pleased with his appointment is Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp, who was in the minority in voting against his placement on the council, who called him “extremely disruptive and difficult.”
“It’s stunning. I of course didn’t vote for him,” Kemp said. “I can’t imagine where this can contribute to the functioning of that committee.”
It’s not that there shouldn’t be room for disagreement, she said, but she’s concerned that he will become so disruptive that the council will get nothing done.
“He’s obviously a person who’s gone to great lengths to make sure that it isn’t a cooperative environment,” Kemp said.
It’s unclear whether activists are going to try to bring charges against McCallister’s group, as doxxing in and of itself isn’t illegal, but Organize Florida’s Tim Heberlein told the Tampa Bay Times that it seems like a legal line has been crossed.
This article appears in Aug 17-24, 2017.